Ian Churchill – An Interview

For readers who aren’t familiar with you or your work can you explain who you are and what you do?

My name is Ian Churchill and I work in the comic book industry creating, writing, drawing and colouring comic books. Although the industry is a global one, I work mostly for American companies such as Marvel Comics and DC comics.

You were a graphic designer, how did you make the leap into graphic novels/comics?

I had always wanted to be a comic book illustrator and took a chance when the economic recession of the early 1990’s hit. I whipped up some sample pages and took them to a prominent comic convention in London. After watching other hopefuls being reviewed I got in the line of the editor who made the most sense to me with his appraisals. To cut a long story short, he turned out to be the editor of the X-Men line of books at Marvel Comics and he pretty much hired me on the spot! I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right style of drawing for that particular time in the industry and I have been woking in comics ever since.

Blatant name dropping, who have you and do you work with?

I could rattle off a whole list of people but to anyone not into comics it would just be a bunch of names. The two names outside of comics I have worked with that people might recognise are Jeph Loeb (who wrote the Original Teen Wolf movie, the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando and is now in control of Marvel Television) and Jonathan Ross who needs no clarification…! Jonathan is a long time comic book fan and finally took the plunge and began writing comics a handful of years ago to much acclaim. I worked with him on a very adult comic book called REVENGE and will be collaborating with him again somewhere down the line.

Tell us a Little about the process from idea concept, are you given a script, how do the words come to life?

It varies according to who you’re working with and in which capacity. When I’m just drawing, the writer will email a plot which describes the characters and what they are doing along with dialogue and my job is to break it down into sequential panels that allow the reader to follow the story as easily as possible. Once I’ve finished my part, the pencil work is then inked and scanned into the computer where it is sent off for colouring and lettering then finally off to the printer.
Occasionally I do everything myself which is the same order as I just explained except when I write a story I tend to write it and draw it both at the same time.

At Awesome comics I was plotting and drawing a group of characters I created myself, called The Coven. At Image Comics, the same scenario – A character I created called MARINEMAN. At DC I enjoyed drawing Superman and Supergirl and at Marvel, the Avengers and Red Hulk were fun to draw.

As a kid who influenced your work and now as an adult?

Outside of comics the book illustrator Arthur Rackham was a huge influence on me growing up and in comics John Romita , John Byrne, Steve Ditko and many more besides. As an adult I’m always learning new ways to do things but I don’t look to anyone in particular as an influence. These days I do my OWN thing.

If people want to buy your work how do they?

It’s easier than ever to get comics these days. Any good comic store is the obvious way but also comics are getting more and more popular on digital devices. Comixology is the leading legal app to get comics from digitally. Any good bookstore is able to order graphic novels for you and online Amazon and other similar shopping sites can satisfy your comic book needs! Actually, If you happen to be local to the Chichester area a new comic shop has just opened at the end of North Street called the CGC Emporium where you can order, purchase and read your comics while sipping a tasty beverage!